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Is There Really any Necessary Pain?

Pain, whether emotional or physical, is experienced by different people differently. Most people have varying pain threshold, referring to their ability to withstand the pain. As the body’s marker for anything that goes wrong, it seems a given that it is necessary. How to judge and measure the exact amount of necessary pain still remains a mystery.

The problem is, when to relieve this pain, how to know if it is the necessary pain, and when does pain having served its purpose become unnecessary? Obviously, all initial pain is necessary as it alerts us about the many things that could be wrong with our bodies and that every one should be grateful for.

If you are doubtful of this, simply ask leprosy patients who feel no pain and end up losing parts of their anatomy or a parent of a child with a genetic disorder that does not allow them to feel any pain. These children rarely make it to adulthood, not because something is wrong but because they never stop engaging in harmful behavior, since to them, it is no painful.

At the passing of the initial pain, is it right for us to endure any more pain when we already know what is causing the pain or are we simply addicted to pain relieving medication and can not help ourselves but take the drugs? This has caused much debate in the medicine world especially for those with chronic pain and need strong pain killers to be administered just to make their lives more bearable.

For patients in chronic pain but who are not terminally ill, the decision for administration of the medication may be a little contested. If this person is cured then he may have gotten so used to being in a blissful pain free state that he can not go back to dealing with even the smallest of pain. But then again what happens when the pain is truly unbearable and drugs have to be administered?

For the terminally ill, it is in my opinion that their last days should be made as comfortable as possible. The family and relatives may not agree to this because the medicine may make them less responsive, but this is being selfish. Put yourself in your sick and dying relative’s shoes, would you want to die a painful death so just you could be lucid enough on the last day to say goodbye to people you said goodbye to already? In all fairness, refusing them pain relief is making them endure unnecessary pain.

Necessary pain is only as far as it serves its purpose to alert us of possible life threatening body malfunctions. Other than that, there is no logical reason for someone to want to stay in pain and endure untold displeasure. It is always better though to use the more natural means of relieving that pain instead of the chemical ones. Take your pain only as far as it still allows you to function normally. Anything that disrupts your ordinary routine requires relieving, no one will think any less of you if you do.